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Eero Hyrkäs brings a clean durable aesthetic to a stark winter landscape
By Thom Loree
Nickel Magazine, March 2008 -- For designer Eero Hyrkäs, artistic
inspiration comes equally from the clear, bright, unspoiled landscape of his native Lapland and the from the
nickel stainless steels produced by Outokumpu in the small town of Tornio, Finland, where he lives and
works.
Hyrkäs looks to the northern landscape for ideas – ideas that will reveal themselves as clean lines and
elegant, reflective surfaces. These qualities typify his latest collection of high-end home products, which
is called JAUR, after the word meaning “deep water” in the Sami language of Lapland. The collection includes
15 functional pieces, such as a water pitcher, a coffee pot, salad servers, a champagne cooler, and
trays.
Hyrkäs and six other Finnish metal smiths make the pieces by hand, in traditional style, at the designer’s
Tornio shop, Arctichrome Production Oy.
There’s no question the stylish designs are easy on the eyes and somehow calming.
“We try to show how a simple, clean style can be beautiful,” he tells Nickel. “It’s important to create
pieces that will still look good after long periods of time – that are timeless.
“I constantly seek to refine my forms to eliminate everything unnecessary,” he once remarked. “What’s left
is peace.”
The raw material for achieving this simple, elegant, tranquil effect is nickel stainless steel -- always
in plentiful supply in Tornio since Outokumpu’s biggest production facilities are located there. In fact,
Hyrkäs used to work for the Finnish steelmaker before finding his niche as a designer some 35 years ago. The
area has a long tradition of smithing and forging skills. Hyrkäs’s grandfather was a blacksmith.
Hyrkäs and his team use S30400
stainless steel, which has a nickel content of 8-10.5% . “We receive it in sheets,” he says. “Big bundles of
them, between 0.5 and 1.5 millimetres thick. We also purchase tubes. That’s all we need to start creating
pieces.”
The surface qualities of S30400
stimulate his imagination.
“We play around with different ways of polishing the surface. There are many possibilities, many looks we
can create using stainless steel. Usually we use a satin surface, though sometimes we’ll opt for a more
polished, shiny look. It all depends on the product.”
While stainless is hard and durable, he notes that it must be handled very carefully when fabricating the
objects he creates so that no surface defects will spoil the appearance of his art.
The collection was produced in co-operation with Design House Idoli of Ivalo, Finland, and released in its
complete form in 2007. It was preceded by a series of pitchers (now part of the total collection), which was
voted the most impressive stainless steel artifact of 2002 by the Southern Africa Stainless Steel Development
Association.
All the stainless steel that passes through Hyrkäs’s shop is recycled. “No scrap is being dumped into
landfill sites,” he says. “Outokumpu uses large amounts of scrap stainless steel every day, which they remelt
to make new stainless steel. We do not waste any in our operations either, all my leftover scrap is taken
back to them to be recycled.”
Hyrkäs uses 6,000-7,000 kilograms of stainless steel per year to produce pieces that weigh anywhere
between 500 grams and 1 kilogram individually.
The work can be painstaking, but through it all Hyrkäs stays focused on stainless steel’s unique potential
for conveying the strength and pristine beauty of Arctic nature. Small wonder his art has such a direct and
calming effect on the observer.
Thom Loree is a Toronto-based freelance writer.
Photos: JAUR
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